Films to See or Avoid

by Sandra Olmsted

Films in theaters now:

     DOG DAYS (LD Entertainment) is a film that dog lovers will love even though the stories of four intersecting humans and their canine friends aren’t grounded in reality. Writer/Director Ken Marino’s fantasy highlights the everyday connections between people and their dogs in Los Angeles and has a strong cast. Elizabeth (Nina Dobrev), a single newscaster, seeks advice from her dog’s therapist Danielle (Tig Notaro) and struggle with the on-screen chemistry with her new co-anchor, former NFLer Jimmy Johnston (Tone Bell). Tara (Vanessa Hudgens), a barista, dreams of marrying vet Dr. Mike (Michael Cassidy) while Daisy (Lauren Lapkus), a lonely dog walker, crushes on a client she hasn’t met.

Meanwhile, Garrett (Jon Bass), the owner of New Tricks Dog Rescue, pines after Tara, while struggling to keep his struggling dog adoption business afloat. Ruth (Jessica St. Clair) and Greg (Thomas Lennon), who are about to have twins, reluctantly leave their huge dog in the care of Ruth’s brother Dax (Adam Pally), a man-child in a band with his ex-girlfriend Lola (Jasmine Cephas Jones). While Grace (Eva Longoria) and Kurt (Rob Corddry) await the arrival of their adopted daughter Amelia (Elizabeth Caro), their lives converge with Walter’s (Ron Cephas Jones) search for his missing for his pudgy pug. Walter, an elderly widower, get some help from Tyler (Finn Wolfhard), the neighborhood pizza delivery boy. Rated PG for rude and suggestive content, and for language; 113 mins.

Director Jon Turtletaub taps into blockbuster escapism and the Chinese market with The Meg (Warner Bros.). Five years ago, expert sea diver and Naval Captain Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) encountered an unknown danger in the unexplored recesses of the Mariana Trench. Forced to abandon half his crew, a disgraced Jonas lost his career, his marriage, his honor, and his credibility because he claims his vessel was attacked by a mammoth, 70-foot monster, believed to be extinct for more than a million years. Is Carcharodon Megalodon, the largest marine predator ever, responsible for the sinking of submersible, which lies disabled on the bottom of the ocean? When Jones gets the call from a visionary Chinese oceanographer, Dr. Zhang (Winston Chao) to help, Jonas finds out his ex-wife is among the crew.

Meanwhile, Dr. Zhang’s daughter, Suyin (Li Bingbing), thinks she can rescue the crew on her own. Is this Jonas’ shot at redemption or a suicide mission? Can Zhang, Suyin, and Jonas work together to save those trapped? Can Jonas confront his fears? The Meg is just popcorn-spilling fun, which makes for excellent escapism. Rated PG-13 for action and peril, bloody images and some language; 113 mins.

   With BLACKkKLANSMAN (Focus), director Spike Lee returns with the incredible true story of an American hero: Ron Stallworth (John David Washington), an African-American police officer, who successfully infiltrated the local Ku Klux Klan and became the head of the local Colorado chapter. In the 1970s, Stallworth became the first African-American detective on the Colorado Springs Police Department, and he’s greeted with skepticism and hostility by the rank and file. Undaunted, Stallworth resolves to make a difference in his community and sets out to infiltrate and expose the Ku Klux Klan. Posing as a racist extremist, Stallworth contacts the group and soon finds himself invited into its inner circle. He even cultivates a relationship with the Klan’s Grand Wizard, David Duke (Topher Grace), who praises Ron’s commitment to the advancement of White America. With the undercover investigation growing ever more complex, Stallworth’s colleague, Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), poses as Ron in face-to-face meetings with members of the hate group, gaining insider’s knowledge of a deadly plot. Together, Stallworth and Zimmerman team up to take down the organization whose real aim is to sanitize its violent rhetoric to appeal to the mainstream. Lee delivers an unflinching, nuanced, true-life examination of race in America in the 1970s that is just as relevant today. Rated R for language throughout, including racial epithets, and for disturbing/violent material and some sexual references; 135 min.

Far from the Tree (Sundance Selects) examines the experiences of families in which parents and children are profoundly different from one another in a variety of ways. Director Rachel Dretzin’s documentary follows families meeting extraordinary challenges through love, empathy, and understanding. Based on Andrew Solomon’s award-winning, critically acclaimed, New York Times bestselling non-fiction book, Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity, this life-affirming film explores what it means to be human and encourages families to cherish loved each other for who they are and not to focus on who they might have been. Not Rated; 93 min.

   Slender Man (Screen Gems) is the horror film to skip this summer. While the perfunctory story aspires to films such as The Ring, director Sylvain White’s attempt to capitalize on the urban legend of Slender Man which was created by artist Eric Knudsen aka Victor Surge. The question is why do it at all when it Slender Man has been associated with obsessed teens doing terrible things, such as committing murder in 2014. This lackluster horror film is set in small-town Massachusetts, where some teenagers become fascinated with Slender Man and attempt to prove that he does not exist. Then one of them goes missing. Joey King, Julia Goldani Telles, Jaz Sinclair star although they make regret it later in their careers. Rated PG-13 for disturbing images, sequences of terror, thematic elements and language including some crude sexual references; 93mins.

All of these films are in theaters now!

Happy Movie Going!

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